Taximeters

ABSTRACT

A taximeter is provided with counters and a binary code decoder for generating code pulses from pulses based on time and/or distance, and these code pulses operate a fare indicator at predetermined values of time and/or distance.

United States Patent [191 [111 3,843,870

Craddock 1 Oct. 22, 1974 l l TAXIMETERS 3,388,859 6/l968 Kelch 235/30 R 5 5 90 -S' r ..235 OR [75] Inventor: Michael John CraddOck, London 33755.33; n/i9i2 235/30 R England [73] Assignee: Geecen Limited London England Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson [22] Filed: Nov. 5, 1973 Assistant Examiner\ it W. Miska [2'] pp NO 412 590 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-William Anthony Drucker Related us. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 299.714. Oct. 24, l972, [57] ABSTRACT abandoned.

A taximeter is provided with counters and a binary [52] US. Cl. 235/30 R, 235/33, 235/45 code decoder for generating code pulses from pulses [51] Int. Cl. G07b 13/10 based on time and/or distance, and these code pulses [58] Field of Search 235/30 R, 33, 45 operate a fare indicator at predetermined values of time and/or distance. [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 9 C s, 1 a ng Figur 3.l57,352 'l l/l964 Caywood 235/30 R 57 10.0. RESET TIME AND I 13 l 14 I I5 I I6 msmucs 100 1000 18 I9 20 2! i DECODE DECOgE l DE3g DEgo'gf X 10 X1 ll llllll lllllll rmur EMBLEIIIIIU 5 %-10 was: -I0 0R% "'1 ma 1 23 24 2 so 12 4 I 3 ,4 x 3a f 60 36 42 4o 39 M. ENABLE TAR/ff I 45 43 ENABLE rocouurm k c S inssrr 4Z i c To 4 cowl/TEES .L Li ENABLE A T05! A 1 TAXIMETERS This a continuation of application Ser. No. 299,714 filed Oct. 24,1972, now abandoned.

This invention relates to taximeters of the kind having means for producing pulses corresponding to time and distance, which pulses are utilised to operate a fare indicator. Such taximeters are described in United Kingdom Pat. specification Nos. 1,129,344, 1,240,325 and US. Pat. specification No. 3,157,352.

' The object of the present invention is to achieve an automatic change (increase or decrease) in rate of charge commonly known as tariff.

A further object of the present invention is to provide means whereby one or more automatic changes of tariff can be achieved.

Still another object is to provide means whereby a given design of taximeter can readily be altered to suit different tariffs, e.g. in different towns.

The taximeter of the present invention may include an initial fare based on time or distance or a combination of both and the term tariff may, for the purpose of this invention, be regarded as including an initial fare. The tariffs likewise can be based on the same or different systems of time, distance or a combination of both. Again, the variation of tariff may be a variation of time or distance or a combination of both.

According to one aspect of the present invention the taximeter includes means for providing a first pulse based on time of hire or distance travelled or a combination of both, means for generating a series of code pulses from said first pulses, said code pulses corresponding to a series of codes which, in turn, correspond to predetermined distance or time value or a combination of both, means operated by said code pulses and which can pass pulses to'a fare indicator means, a plurality of control means, each of which can control the passage of the code pulses, and means for rendering the control means successively operative at predetermined values of time and/or distance.

The means for generating the code pulses may include a series of counters for units, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc., each associated with a binary code decoder which has a series of outputs, each' output (or each of some of them) being associated with a gate which passes a pulse to a control gate on receipt of an enabling pulse. The means for rendering the control means operative may be a counter which counts pulses passing to the fare indicator means and emits secondary code pulses to the series of control means which pass enabling pulses to said gates, said control means including gates operated by the secondary code pulses whereby the required control means is rendered operative at the predetermined fare ranges.

The means operated by said code pulses may supply pulses to a device (which may be regarded as part of the fare indicator means) which emits a predetermined number of pulses being fed to the fare indicator. This device may be a monostable device associated with a resistor-capacitor latching circuit.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing which is a circuit diagram of an apparatus made in accordance with the invention.

The diagram shows only the tariff changing part of the apparatus. The means for generating pulses if desired arranging for the faster of the time and distance pulses to be effective may be as described in any of the prior patent specifications. Thus, for example, the reduction device 16 in FIG. '4 of US. Pat. specification No. 1,129,344 may be replaced by the apparatus in the said diagram. Thus the input 12 passes pulses corresponding to a combination of the time and distance pulses to a counter shown as four devices 13, 14, l5, 16 which respectively count units, tens, hundreds and thousands with usual carry-over from a lower device to a higher device. Each of these devices has four output leads to emit a four-pulse binary code. These code pulses are fed to decoders 18, 19, 20, 21, each having 10 output leads on which pulses appear successively according to the numbers indicated by the code pulses. Each of the 10 outputs of each decoder is applied to a NOR gate of which some only are shown, e.g. 23, 24, 25, 26 respectively. These gates have additional input connections 28, 29, 30, 31 to receive enabling pulses. One NOR gate from each decoder is connected to output leads 33, 34, 35, 36 to control AND gate 40. Some of the gates 23-26 can be dispensed with if not required. The control gate 40 emits a pulse when it receives pulses simultaneously on all four connections 33-36. The pulses from gate 40 pass via a blocking circuit 41 to a monostable 42 associated with a latching circuit which includes a resistor 43 and capacitor 44. The blocking circuit 41 serves to stop pulses during the initial fare period. The monostable passes a predetermined number of pulses from a pulse input 38 to an output 39 leading to a fare indicator (not shown) on receipt of a pulse.

The pulses from gate 40 also pass to a control counter shown as units counter 45 and tens counter 46 which emit secondary code pulses (the pulses from the decoders 18-21 being regarded as the primary code pulses). The outputs from 45, 46 are connected to each of a series of control devices of which only two (48, 49) are shown but any larger number may be provided. These devices are connected in parallel. Each control device has two AND gates 50, 51 connected respectively to counters 45, 46, an output AND gate 52 and an inverting amplifier 53 feeding pulses from the last of the gates n, to the first gate 52in order that the apparatus will revert to the first control device 45 when the last has been used. The outputs from the gates 52 are connected to the enabling leads 28-31 via latch circuits 55.

The pulses from gate 40 also are passed via a monostable 56 to the counters 13-16 to reset them'to nil and master reset pulses areapplied at 57 to reset counters 13-16 and 45, 46 and the fare indicator to nil when the taximeter is reset to For Hire.

Thus assuming 10,000 pulses equivalent to one mile distance travelled; an initial fare of 15 pence, increments of 3p per 450 yards or 2.5 minutes waiting time, or a combination of each (e.g. 225 yards and 1.25 minutes); then when counters 13-16 register 2,550-pulses (i.e., 450 yards or 2.5 minutes or a combination of these) a pulse will be emitted from gate 40 due to the fact that the control device 48 has been connected to give enabling pulses at output 0 of decoder 18, output 5 of decoder 19, output 5 of decoder 20, and output 2 of decoder 21. The pulse from 40 is blocked by the latch or blocking circuit 41. After the initial fare has been'passed, further pulses from 40 pass to 42 and the latching circuit holds this open while it emits three pulses to advance the fare indicator 3p. The pulses from gate 40 are counted by counter 45, 46. When counter 45, 46 reaches a predetermined value it ceasesto pulse 48 and commences to pulse 49. The latter, however, may be connected to outputs 5, 2, 1, 2 of outputs from decoders 18-21 so that the pulses from 40 (each advancing the fare indicator 3p) will represent a different tariff (in this case 374 yards). An AND gate 60 is fed with pulses from the units block of counter 45 and, in turn, feeds pulses to the latch 41 to prevent pulses passing to 42 during the time distance corresponding to the initial charge.

The gate 50 and counter 45 are shown with four terminals but in arrangements where only two or three such terminals are required, the other terminals of the gate 50 will merely be connected to a positive line, e.g. if counter fires out a pulse on reaching a binary number 1010 the two terminals representing the two figures 1 will be converted to any two terminals of the gate 50 and the other terminals of gate 50 will be converted to a positive line.

While the above description is related to a taximeter having at least two tariffs in addition to an initial fare control it is to be noted that the invention could be applied to a taximeter having an initial fare control and a single tariff or, in other words, the control of the initial fare could be regarded as one tariff and controlled by one of the systems 50-55 (in place of the device 40, 60), while the subsequent tariff would be controlled by the other system 50-55. Therefore, for the purpose of this specification and the appended claims the initial fare is to be regarded as a tariff.

Any part or the whole of the circuitry may be provided by printed circuitry, integrated chips or other known circuitry means.

I claim;

1. A taximeter having means for providing a first pulse based on time of hire or distance travelled, or a combination of both time and distance, means for generating a series of code pulses from said first pulses, said code pulses corresponding to a series of codes which, in turn, correspond to predetermined distance or time values or a combination of both, pulse feed means operated by said code pulses and which can pass pulses to a fare indicator means, a plurality of control means, each of which can control the passage of the code pulses and means for rendering the control means successively operative at predetermined values of time and/or distance. p

2. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for generating the code pulses include a series of counters each associated with a binary code decoder which has a series of outputs,each output (or each of some of them) being associated with a gate which passes a pulse to a control gate on receipt of an enabling pulse.

3. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1 wherein the 2 means for rendering the control means successively operative consists of counting means giving a pulse code to each of the control means fed with the pulses that operate the means which pass pulses to the fare indicator means.

4. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1 having means for blocking pulses to the fare indicator while the initial fare is being expended, and at least two other said control means.

5. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1 wherein one said control means controls the expenditure of the initial fare and at least one other said control means is provided for controlling the subsequent fare indicator advances.

6. A taximeter as claimed in claim 2, wherein the means for rendering the control means operative is a counter which counts pulses passing to the fare indicator means and emits secondary code pulses to the series of control means which pass enabling pulses to said gates, said control means including gates operated by the secondary code pulses whereby the required control means is rendered operative at the predetermined fare ranges.

7. A taximeter as claimed in claim 10 wherein each control means comprises AND gates fed with code pulses and giving output pulses to a further AND gate which has an output providing enabling control pulses to said means operated by said code pulses for enabling them to be fed to the fare indicator.

8. A taximeter as claimed in claim 2 wherein each control means comprises AND gates fed with code pulses and giving output pulses to a further AND gate which has an output providing enabling control pulses to said means operated by said code pulses for enabling them to be fed to the fare indicator and wherein the further AND gate of the first control means has means whereby a pulse from the output of the further AND of the last control means is fed to the further AND gate of the first control means so that the operation reverts to the first control means after the last control means has been in action.

9. A taximeter having means for providing a first pulse based on time of hire or distance travelled and a combination of both time and distance, means for generating a series of code pulses from said first pulses, said code pulses corresponding to a series of codes which in turn correspond to predetermined distance or time values or a combination of both, pulse feed means operated by said code pulses and which can pass pulses to a fare indicator means characterized by a series of primary cou'nters (13-16) feeding a corresponding series of decoders (18-21), said decoders each having a series of output terminals, a corresponding number of NOR gates connected one to a terminal of each of said decoders, a control gate (40) which sends a pulse to (a) a fare indicator on receipt of a pulse from each of said NOR gates, (b) secondary counters (45,46) which provide enabling pulses to said NOR gates, and (c) to reset means (56) for resetting said primary counters. 

1. A taximeter having means for providing a first pulse based on time of hire or distance travelled, or a combination of both time and distance, means for generating a series of code pulses from said first pulses, said code pulses corresponding to a series of codes which, in turn, correspond to predetermined distance or time values or a combination of both, pulse feed means operated by said code pulses and which can pass pulses to a fare indicator means, a plurality of control means, each of which can control the passage of the code pulses and means for rendering the control means successively operative at predetermined values of time and/or distance.
 2. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for generating the code pulses include a series of counters each associated with a binary code decoder which has a series of outputs, each output (or each of some of them) being associated with a gate which passes a pulse to a control gate on receipt of an enabling pulse.
 3. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1 wherein the means for rendering the control means successively operative consists of counting means giving a pulse code to each of the control means fed with the pulses that operate the means which pass pulses to the fare indicator means.
 4. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1 having means for blocking pulses to the fare indicator while the initial fare is being expended, and at least two other said control means.
 5. A taximeter as claimed in claim 1 wherein one said control means controls the expenditure of the initial fare and at least one other said control means is provided for controlling the subsequent fare indicator advances.
 6. A taximeter as claimed in claim 2, wherein the means for rendering the control means operative is a counter which counts pulses passing to the fare indicator means and emits secondary code pulses to the series of control means which pass enabling pulses to said gates, said control means including gates operated by the secondary code pulses whereby the required control means is rendered operative at the predetermined fare ranges.
 7. A taximeter as claimed in claim 10 wherein each control means comprises AND gates fed with code pulses and giving output pulses to a further AND gate which has an output providing enabling control pulses to said means operated by said code pulses for enabling them to be fed to the fare indicator.
 8. A taximeter as claimed in Claim 2 wherein each control means comprises AND gates fed with code pulses and giving output pulses to a further AND gate which has an output providing enabling control pulses to said means operated by said code pulses for enabling them to be fed to the fare indicator and wherein the further AND gate of the first control means has means whereby a pulse from the output of the further AND of the last control means is fed to the further AND gate of the first control means so that the operation reverts to the first control means after the last control means has been in action.
 9. A taximeter having means for providing a first pulse based on time of hire or distance travelled and a combination of both time and distance, means for generating a series of code pulses from said first pulses, said code pulses corresponding to a series of codes which in turn correspond to predetermined distance or time values or a combination of both, pulse feed means operated by said code pulses and which can pass pulses to a fare indicator means characterized by a series of primary counters (13-16) feeding a corresponding series of decoders (18-21), said decoders each having a series of output terminals, a corresponding number of NOR gates connected one to a terminal of each of said decoders, a control gate (40) which sends a pulse to (a) a fare indicator on receipt of a pulse from each of said NOR gates, (b) secondary counters (45,46) which provide enabling pulses to said NOR gates, and (c) to reset means (56) for resetting said primary counters. 